In the construction industry, a relevant aspect is the finishing of the internal or external locations. Such details, in fact, are very important not only from a functional point of view, but also from an aesthetic one.
To this aim, floors and walls are often covered with tiles, i.e. with architectural elements able to properly finish the surfaces and also to provide a good looking impression to the location.
For laying tiles, a layer of adhesive material is typically applied, on which they are placed. The tiles are typically leveled by striking them on various points of their surface with an hammer.
It is evident that such approach is not only operationally time-consuming, but also requires great skill and hardly ever ensures optimal results. Generally, in fact, the tiles laid in this manner are not perfectly coplanar, not only because of the laying technique, but also because the solidification of the adhesive material may induce small movements that causes a loss of planarity.
Therefore, special devices are known to assist the user when laying tiles. In particular, such devices comprise a tie-rod and a load element attached thereto. The tie-rod typically consists of a base that is disposed on the glue and on which the edges of adjacent tiles are placed, and a projecting element that emerges from the tile plan through the joints. The load element, which presses the edge of the tiles to the wall, is coupled to said projecting element. The use of a high number of such devices with their correct adjustment allows acting on several points of each of the laid tiles, ensuring a perfect coplanarity of the same even after solidification of the adhesive.
Subsequently, it is sufficient to remove the load element and to disconnect the element projecting from the base. This operation is facilitated by providing a weakened point between the base and the projecting element.
According to a first known embodiment, the projecting element is constituted of a plate-like body provided with a cracking above the level of the tiles, on which a wedge is placed constituting the load element. However, this embodiment is expensive because a different tie-rod for each different tile thickness must be provided. Furthermore, the detachment of the projecting element is not always easy.
Devices are also known where the projecting element is constituted of a plate-like body provided with a toothed rack and the load element is constituted of a knob provided with a pass-through hole suitable to be crossed by the projecting element and molded to interact with the rack, so as to prevent the pulling of the projecting element. The adjustment of the pressure of the load element, therefore, can be easily obtained by pressing down the knob.
With said embodiment, the detachment of the projecting element is easy with the support of the knob. The knob can also be recovered, but this can only occur by removing the remaining part of the projecting element and this is not always easily achievable. In fact, this operation can only be performed from the detachment side of the projecting element from the base and the portion protruding from the knob could be particularly low.
Another drawback is that the pressure adjustment is not very easy since it is only possible to increase pressure and not to decrease it due to the interaction between the rack and the knob.
For these reasons, an additional type of device has been realized where the projecting element is constituted by a pivot at least partially threaded, and the knob comprises a female thread portion for adjusting the pressure. In this case the adjustment can be improved both by screwing and unscrewing and the detachment of the projecting element from the base is nevertheless assisted by the knob.
However, the recovery of the knob remains difficult because the installer is forced to unscrew from the knob the projecting element detached from the base. Since typically the number of such devices is particularly high in use, it is evident that the operation is particularly costly in terms of both execution time and physical energy.